I can't speak in general, but Pioneer DEH-80PRS AutoEQ worked quite well for me. First, after running AutoEQ, the imaging was pretty much spot on, better and more consistent than what I was able to accomplish myself simply by tuning with time delays and speaker balance with old head unit (frequency response is supposedly more important than TA at frequencies above 2KHz). Second, Pioneer really cleared up my upper mid-range. In my setup the woofer is supposed to play to at least 5KHz and the tweeter above that with a sharp high pass slope. It's well known that there will be a big frequency response dip above 2KHz for a 6.5 inch woofer if its installed off axis, and I think that was audible to my ears. Without any tuning, the vocals sounded too laid back, almost distant. This was another aspect that DEH-80PRS handled pretty well. Finally, what it did to subwoofer phase is something that I would not guess to try myself (it added a big delay to the front stage, much bigger than what actual distances would imply and then flipped the phase).
So in my experience, Pioneer DEH-80PRS was totally worth its price for its instant improvements to sound. It would be enough for most people, but there are certainly some limitations. "Only" 16-band equalizer. For example control at frequencies above 5KHz is pretty coarse. No parametric equalizer. AutoEQ does not always select a correct crossover frequency (it selected 125Hz high pass for mids in in my car, but I normally prefer 60-80Hz). Subwoofer was attenuated like 6-7dB from what I consider a good sub bass level. Bass was dry and gutless. However, the sub bass issues can be fixed manually pretty easily. DIY people would also appreciate that there is an auxiliary input in the back, so you can hook up a sound RTA system for additional tuning. So this head unit has "essential features" of more advanced processors, but costs only 30-50% of their price.